Heretofore, especially in automobile and truck applications, it has become desirable to sense various operating parameters as well as other vehicular conditions reflective of, for example, vehicle and/or passenger safety.
In an attempt to satisfy such attendant sensing requirements, the prior art has, heretofore, provided a plurality of sensing devices for respectively sensing a plurality of operating parameters and then supplied a plurality of warning devices respectively actuatable directly in response to the respective operation of said plurality of sensing devices. This basic approach has proven to be extremely costly and not totally reliable. Usually, such prior art systems are tailored as to have, for example, a particular sensor and cooperating warning device employable for only one particular application and, therefore, this, in turn, requires the greatly added expense of providing different tooling and testing equipment for the manufacturing of each such sensor and warning device combination as well as the added expense of installing each such combination within the vehicle.
Further, dependability of the overall system employing such respective pluralities of sensors and warning devices is often effected by, for example, the human qualities of the vehicle operator. That is, often it occurs that one particular combination of a first sensor and cooperating first warning device has functioned to provide the desired warning signal or attendant control function. Because of the operator being aware that he has in fact received such a signal, he often assumes that all of the other combinations of respective sensors and warning devices are also operative whereas, in fact, any one of the other combinations may have experienced failure as in, for example, the warning device because of such destructive influences as excessive vibrations and/or temperature.
Accordingly, the invention as herein disclosed and described is primarily concerned with the solution of the above as well as other related and attendant problems.